Hay-baler.



W. H. HILLIGASS.

HAY BALER.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. IOi 19l6.

Patented Aug. 7-, 1917.

v WK ZZZ/Zfdl? A TTOR/VEYS LE" my WITNESS/ 8 mnM/Vz WILLIAM HENRY HILLIGASS, OF PAYSON, ARIZONA.

HAY-BALER,

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. *7, 1917.

Application filed August 10, 1916. Serial No. 114,142.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, \VILLIAM I-I. HILLI- GASS, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Payson, in the county of Gila and State of Arizona, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Hay-Balers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to hay baling presses, and some of the objects thereof are to provide such a press wherein bales are made of uniform sizes by means of a plunger having a predetermined degree of travel; which provides a rack bar for said plunger operable by means of a gear in turn manually operable to form the bale; which provides a pawl preventing retraction of the plunger under normal conditions but which pawl may be readily rendered inoperative whenever desired by the operator; vwhich provides manually operable means for engagement with and disengagement from a ratchet wheel in turn operating said gear; which is simple in construction and use; which is composed of few parts not likely to get out of order to require repair; which may be used for baling other material than hay;

and which is comparatively inexpensive.

My invention is fully described in the following specification, of which the accompanying drawings form a part, in which like characters refer to like parts in each of the views, and in which Figure 1 is a plan view of a baling press constructed in accordance with my invention;

Fig. 2 Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary view of the handle end of an operating lever which I employ; and

Fig. l is a detached view of a locking pawl which I employ.

Referring to the drawings, 5 represents a frame having a casing 6 thereon forming a baling chamber 7 in which a plunger 8 is movable, a hopper 9 being provided adja cent the rearward plunger position whereby the hay or other material to be baled may be introduced into the chamber 7.

The plunger 8 is provided with springs 10 the tendency of which is to retract the plunger when permitted to do so, and said plunger is operated by means of a rack bar 11 guided by means of rollers 12 in a support 13. In its illustrated form the rack bar consists of two spaced parallel bars joined by is a section taken on the line 2-2 of rods spaced at equidistant points and adapted to be engaged by the teeth of a gear lt carried by a shaft 15 mounted in bearings 16, a ratchet wheel 17 being secured to said gear and rotatable therewith.

Mounted upon the shaft 15 and movable lndependently of the gear 1% and ratchet 17 is a lever 18 having a handhold 19 and provided with a pawl 20 pivoted at 21 and normally held toward the lever by means of a spring 22, against the ratchet 1'7 and the teeth of which it is adapted to engage.

Slidably held between the lever 18 and the pawl 20 is a wedge 23 normally held in lowermost position by means of a spring 24: and manually movable upwardly against said spring by means of a bell-crank 25 pivoted at 26 adjacent the handhold 19 and connected with said wedge 23 by means of a rod 27. lVhen the wedge is drawn upwardly by means of the bell-crank 25 the pawl 20 is forced outwardly of the ratchet 17 against the spring 22, thus releasing said pawl from said ratchet.

Pivoted at 28 to a stationary support 29 is a lever 30 provided with teeth 31 normally held in engagement with the ratchet 17, the upper end of the lever 30 being tapered at 32 and which tapered end is in the path of movement of the pawl 20. If the operating lever 18 should be rocked sufficiently far in this direction to cause the lower end of the pawl 20 to engage the taper 82 continued lever movement will force the teeth 31 clear of the ratchet 17 to permit backward rotation of the ratchet and of its connected gear 1d and, thus, retraction of the rack bar 11 and of the plunger 8 to initial positions.

As shown in Fig. 1, the rack bar 11 is provided with a shouldered ofiset 33 adapted to strike against the lower end of the lever 30, in the forward plunger movement, and thus rock said lever to disengage the teeth 31 thereof from the ratchet, this arrangement limiting the degree of forward plunger movement by means of the operating lever 18 and, in view of the fact that this offset is in permanent position, all the bales formed in the press will be of uniform size. Although not shown, I may make this offset adjustable in order to adapt my baling press to bales of different sizes, as for different materials to be baled.

The hay is introduced into the press through the hopper 9 and the operating lever 18 rocked to force the plunger forwardly in the press, the pawl 20 yieldingly passing the ratchet teeth in the lever movement to secure a fresh hold, and the teeth 31 holding the ratchet and plunger in the positions into which they had been moved whilethe lever 18 is thus being backwardly rocked for a fresh hold. Y

Whenever desired the pawl 20 may be entirely disengaged from the ratchet 17 by means of the bell-crank and, when so desired, the operating lever 18 may be rocked sufiiciently far to cause the pawl 20 to force the teeth 31 out of ratchet engagement to permit the springs 10 to retract the plunger.

My invention is very simple, though highly eflicient, is compact and powerful, and is well adapted for the purpose for which it is intended, and, while I have shown a preferred detail construction, it will be obvious that I do not desire to limit myself thereto but may make changes thereover, provided that such changes do not depart from the spirit of the invention and come within the scope of the appended claims.

-Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A baling press, comprising a casing Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the provided with a baling chamber,

a plunger therein, forwardly, means for retracting said plunger, and means for limiting the forward movement of said plunger.

2. A baling press, comprising a casing provided with a baling chamber, a plunger therein, a rack bar secured to said plunger, a gear engaged with said rack-bar, a ratchet secured to said gear, a lever, a pawl thereon operatively engaging said ratchet, and a toothed lever for locking said ratchet in operated positions, said lever having a tapered end arranged in the path of movement of said pawl whereby said toothed lever may be unlocked from said ratchet.

3. A baling press, comprising a casing provided with a baling chamber, a plunger therein, a rack-bar secured to said plunger, a gear engaged with said rack-bar, a ratchet secured to said gear, a lever, a pawl thereon engaging said ratchet, and a toothed lever for locking said ratchet in operated positions, said rack-bar having an offset thereon for engaging the end of said toothed lever to disengage the same from said ratchet to limit forward plunger movement.

WILLIAM HENRY HILLIGASS.

Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. 0.

means for actuating said plunger 

